Three local wrestlers picked up No. 1 seeds when the WMass Division III Individual Wrestling Championship seeds were announced Sunday morning at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington.

The tournament gets under way on Friday afternoon at Monument Mountain and continues all day Saturday, with the championship matches scheduled for 5 p.m.

Franklin County Technical School led the four local schools in total seeded wrestlers with nine, including two of the three local No. 1s. Junior David Weed, who put together a 31-6 record this season at 138 pounds, was given the top spot in his weight class. Weed finished fifth in WMass last season, but went on to improve to fourth place at the state meet. Teammate and classmate Kyle Laffey, who went 39-2 this winter, picked up the top spot at 152. Laffey finished second at WMass as a freshman, but was forced to sit out the entire 2011-2012 season after transferring from Greenfield High School.

Josh Lacosse earned the third seed at 120 pounds for the Eagles. Lacosse finished second at WMass last season, and should have a look at the top spot. Hampshire Regional High School’s Brandon Weir earned the top seed at 120, while Dean Technical High School’s David Brazeau picked up the second seed on the strength of having defeated Lacosse twice during the regular season, both wins coming by one point. Jonathan Rawls earned the fourth seed at 285 pounds and should have a shot at pulling some upsets in what is considered to be a weak class this year. Gabe Stafford (145) and Alec Milton (220) each earned sixth seeds, Cody Brunelle (126) and Brett Bean (132) picked up seventh seeds, and Pat Lashway (106) earned an eighth seed.

“Overall, it was a good day,” Franklin Tech coach Joe Gamache said of the seed meeting. “We’ve got some kids in spots where, if they come ready to wrestle, they could pull off some upsets.”

Athol High School was the other school to boast a No. 1 seed as Christian Currier went 30-4 on the season at 220 pounds to earn the top seed in that division. Currier will look to improve on his second-place finish at 220 from a season ago. Teammate Tom LaRose went 24-5 this season and picked up the second seed at 170 pounds. The senior finished fourth at WMass as a sophomore, but suffered an injury last season. If he is to win the weight class, he will have to beat Hampshire’s Frankie Weir, the top seed at 170. Trevor Carey was the third Red Raider wrestler to earn a seeding, picking up the sixth seed at 126.

Pioneer Valley Regional School earned four seeds on the day, including Lucas Rathbun’s second seed at 160 pounds. Rathbun went 18-10 during the regular season but wrestled a lot of top competition, as wrestlers from other teams bumped up to him, or he would bump up, in order to set up top matches. Rathbun finished fourth at WMass last year. Teammate Phil Peduzzi picked up the third seed at 195 pounds, while Adam Leblanc, fresh off his 100th career win, earned the sixth seed at 138 pounds. Hayden Manson also earned a seed for the Panthers, taking the eighth seed at 132.

Frontier Regional School also picked up four seeds on the day. Ben McGranaghan earned the second seed at 106 pounds and comes into the tournament on the heels of a third-place finish at 100 pounds last season. Chris Toomey earned the fourth seed at 195 pounds after finishing fourth in the same class last season. Jake Arnold (138) and Ryan Chapdelaine (220) each earned seventh seeds for the Red Hawks.

Frontier tops Gateway

Four Frontier wrestlers registered pins on Saturday and the Red Hawks knocked off Gateway Regional High School, 48-18, in an independent match in Northampton.

Ben McGranaghan earned a pin over Joe Jones at 106 pounds to get Frontier started, and Jake Arnold earned a pin over Kenny Bourdon at 145. Kirby Compton-Burch followed up with a pin over Kyle Bessette at 152 pounds, and Chris Toomey earned the final pin of the day at 195 pounds over Brianna Limoges. The Red Hawks also earned four forfeits en route to their win.

Athol splits tri-meet

Merrick Decker (113 pounds) and Christian Currier (220) each recorded two pins on Saturday and Athol earned a split on the day with a win over Granby High School (42-24) and a loss to Leominster High School (28-27) in Athol.

Trevor Carey earned a pin and an 11-6 decision over Ian Perla (Leominster) at 126 pounds, while Keith Gelinas picked up a pin and a forfeit win at 182. Hayden Herk went 1-0 on the day at 106 pounds with a technical fall.